During the 1930s, Dalton Wells Civilian Conservation Corps Camp exemplified the prevailing wisdom that the federal government
was obligated to take an active role in the national economy during periods of national crisis.

From January 1943 to April 1943, the abandoned Dalton Wells CCC Camp was converted to the Moab Relocation Center for the incarceration of
Japanese American citizens by the War Relocation Authority.

Internment centers such as those at Manzanar, Tule Lake, Gila and Topaz
were bleak at best and little better than concentration camps. As the numbness and shock of forced relocation wore off, groups of internees,
often led by those holding American citizenship, began to ask embarrassing questions, demand better treatment and point out corruption in the
administration of the camps.

This resistance began at Manzanar in late 1942. The War Relocation Authority shipped sixteen of the Manzanar leaders to the abandoned camp at
Dalton Wells. This first group arrived on January 11, 1943. Thirteen more from Gila arrived on February 18, followed six days later by ten more
from Manzanar. The Tule Lake camp sent fifteen on April 2.

Conditions in Dalton Wells were worse than conditions in the regular camps. The inmates, all men, were denied permission to visit Moab, had
their mail censored and were not allowed contact with their families.

At peak occupancy in late April 1943, the relocation center held forty-nine men.

In April, 1943, all Dalton Wells inmates were moved to an abandoned boarding school at Leupp, Arizona, then in December 1943, they were
moved Tule Lake, California.

Adapted from the NRHP nomination submitted in 1994.

From an interpretive display at the site:

All that remains of the camp today are the cottonwood trees planted by the enrollees, concrete slabs for buildings,
graveled roads and rock-outlined walkways, the remains of an old windmill, and a rock masonry water storage tank. These
remnants signify the moving history of a time when America valiantly struggled to restore its economic stability and provide
its young people with meaningful employment.

National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933

President Franklin Roosevelt came into office during the worst depression the nation had ever known. Fulfilling a campaign promise to put people to
work, he instituted the New Deal to bring economic recovery to the depression-wrought country.

The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of 1933 authorized the Public Works Administration (PWA) to provide jobs, stimulate business
activity, and increase purchasing power through the construction of permanent and socially useful public works. The Federal Government and
local city, county and state governments formed a working partnership resulting in the greatest single construction program in history.

PWA construction projects, in addition to providing employment for the skilled, generated a volume of jobs for the unskilled. The PWA
provided loans and grants up to forty percent of the total cost of the project to states, and many other public bodies, including
schools.

From 1933-1935, the PWA underwrote projects in 3,040 of the 3,073 counties in all forty-eight states. Of the 3.76 billion dollars of
the NIRA fund, 2.56 billion dollars was spent on 19,004 construction projects.

Narrative adapted in part from the NRHP nomination for Tulare Union High School Auditorium and Administration Building
dated 16 November 1999.

Many buildings funded by the PWA have been recognized for their historic significance and architectural excellence. Among them are: